History

As a wild Pokémon

As an Aipom

Ambipom was first seen as an Aipom in Slaking Kong!, worshiping a giant Slaking with several other mountain-dwelling Pokémon. She also stole Ash's hat, much like Ash's Primeape did 428 episodes earlier, with a group of Aipom getting food to offer the Slaking. Later, Aipom joined the other Aipom, as well as several Mankey, Vigoroth and Slaking, to attack the giant Slaking, which turned out to be a mechanical robot made by Team Rocket. She then helped in returning the stolen berries to Taylor. Later, after Ash and his friends left Taylor's home, the group sees Ash's hat on a rock. After wondering who placed it there, they found out that it was Aipom, due to an apple and a flower she left with the hat. The group then continues their journey as Ash says Aipom is a cool Pokémon after all. Unknown to them, the happy Aipom was watching them from a nearby tree.

Aipom soon reappeared in the next episode, May, We Harley Drew'd Ya!, stealing the hats of the participants before making off with Ash's hat again.

With Ash

Ash and Aipom

In Aipom and Circumstance!, Aipom became jealous of Pikachu's closeness to Ash. Aipom also seems to have a certain penchant for headgear; aside from taking Ash's and other participants' hats, Aipom wore a daisy chain on her head and put on a ceremonial crown that the locals had trouble getting off. The members of a crowd who wanted to crown, as well as Ash and his friends, attempted to remove the crown from her head so she would not become their king for a year. With the help of a Belue Berry's sourness, the crown was finally taken off. Ash then hugged Aipom and told her not to get into trouble all the time. As Ash laughed a bit when he told her this, Aipom blushed.

Aipom's gender was confirmed in the Japanese version of the said episode while Aipom was nearby gathering flowers. May said, 「エイパムやっぱり女の子ね？」 Aipom is a girl after all, isn't she?. In DP048, Dawn also explicitly calls Aipom a girl, and in the dub of Steamboat Willies!, both Aipom and Buneary are referred to as girls when Dawn saw them wearing dresses and excitedly exclaimed "Buneary and Aipom you girls look so cute!", confirming them to be female.

Aipom enjoys participating in Pokémon Contests, but is also eager to battle. Her interest was first perked in Thinning the Hoard! where she took an interest in May's battle with Harley. Aipom also watched her battle with Drew before enticing Ash into catching her. While Ash had Aipom, she usually sat on his left shoulder when outside of her Poké Ball, in contrast to Pikachu sitting on his right shoulder.

In order to bring back Torkoal to battle Brandon's Registeel in Overjoyed!, Ash sent Aipom to Professor Oak, where Aipom had trouble adjusting to the new environment and Ash's absence, even attacking the Professor. However, after Ash's second defeat, Aipom returned.

When Ash left for Sinnoh, he wanted to leave all of his Pokémon but Pikachu behind as he did when leaving for Hoenn. However, Aipom snuck aboard the boat he was traveling on to accompany him on his new journey. Aipom proved to be necessary as a backup; as soon as they arrived, Team Rocket kidnapped Pikachu, and Aipom helped find them. During her journey through Sinnoh, Aipom defeated Paul's Chimchar in battle and helped Ash catch his Starly.

In their rematch in O'er the Rampardos we Watched!, she went up against Roark's Geodude. Geodude managed to avoid a lot of damage from Aipom while countering with its attacks, but Aipom was able to connect a super effective Focus Punch and defeat Geodude. Aipom next went up against Rampardos. Aipom uses Swift, but it doesn't affect Rampardos at all. Rampardos uses Headbutt, but before Aipom could dodge it, it is hit and knocks out.

In The Grass Menagerie!, Aipom was Ash's third and final Pokémon in his Eterna Gym Battle against Gardenia, she went up against Gardenia's Roserade after performing a contest like introduction. She used Double Team and began to get close to Roserade but Roserade used Grass Knot intending to trip Aipom up like Turtwig, although it destroyed the Double Team clones, Aipom herself was able to jump and avoid Grass Knot. Aipom then hit Roserade with Focus Punch, Roserade then used Magical Leaf but Aipom dodged by climbing on the trees. Using its vines, Roserade was able to grab Aipom using its vines. Roserade then used Flash blinding Aipom, making her unable to hit with her Focus Punch. Roserade then hit Aipom with Magical Leaf, initially panicking, Ash was able to calm down Aipom and got her to listen with her ears instead as she was still blind. Roserade used Weather Ball, which was Fire-type due to the harsh sunlight, Aipom was able to listen for the Weather Ball and she then hit the Weather Ball with Focus Punch, punching it back to Roserade, dealing super-effective damage. Roserade then used Magical Leaf but Aipom countered with Swift, opening her eyes as the effects of Flash had finished, the Swift then circled Roserade, then Aipom used Focus Punch on one of the Swift stars, knocking it into the Swift stars, causing them all to hit Roserade dealing major damage, Aipom then used the Focus Punch hitting Roserade, defeating the Bouquet Pokémon, winning Ash the Forest Badge.

In Throwing the Track Switch, Ash began the training for his next Gymbattle in Veilstone City. However, Dawn's Buizel seemed to be more interested in Ash's battle training and thus couldn't set his mind on Dawn's training; meanwhile Ash's Aipom also had a problem in Ash's training because her style tended to be more Contest oriented. Then Zoey proposed that Ash and Dawn trade them. After some soul-searching, the Trainers agreed, and the trade took place.

With Dawn

Dawn and Aipom

In Journey to the Unown!, Aipom managed to learn Double Hit. Brock told Dawn that Aipom would evolve soon. Later in the episode, when Dawn and Aipom were being attacked by a group of Unown, Aipom jumped in and evolved into Ambipom.

In Crossing the Battle Line!, Dawn used Ambipom in her Gym battle against Maylene. Ambipom was chosen for her extensive battling experience with Ash. She proved her strength in the battle by defeating Maylene's Meditite, making her the only Pokémon Dawn used in the match who managed to defeat one of Maylene's team. Despite this victory, Ambipom found herself unable to stand up to the strength of Maylene's Lucario and was quickly knocked out.

In Staging a Heroes Welcome, Dawn once again used Ambipom for the Appeal Round in the Wallace Cup. She managed to pass the round by dazzling the judges with Swift, Focus Punch, and Double Hit.

In Battling the Generation Gap! Dawn used her in the Battle Round of the Celestic Contest. Ambipom was able to easily defeat her first two opponents and then went up against Lila's Delcatty. Ambipom won the Contest by using combinations of its attacks instead of using only one attack at a time.

She was seen in a flashback as an Aipom as one of Ash's Pokémon in League Unleashed!.

Personality and characteristics

Ambipom saying goodbye to Ash and Dawn

Like most of her species, Ambipom is a playful Pokémon. As an Aipom, however she behaved much like Ash's Chikorita, being mischievous, often stealing Ash's hat or other forms of headwear and even other Pokémon's food just for attention. She was also quite attached to Ash, getting jealous of his attention to Pikachu, or even attacking Professor Oak just because Ash wasn't present. Upon her evolution, most of these traits mellowed. Ambipom had stopped stealing and became quicker to obey orders. While still loyal to Ash after being traded and evolving, she also became loyal to his friends, showing a more mature side.

Ambipom has been shown to develop different interests over time. A well known example of this is Contests. While not necessarily preferring them to Battles, she has shown great interest. She first showed interest in Contests as a wild Pokémon when watching May and other Coordinators compete in Thinning the Hoard!. Her love for Contests even persuaded Ash to participate in the Jubilife Contest.

Later, she became interested in Pokémon Ping Pong after using Ping Pong-like moves in a recent Contest. This interest, once again, ended up in Ambipom switching roads.

Moves improvised

Description: This was used when Aipom wanted to express her wish for performing in Contests. Aipom uses Double Team, before jumping between them and using Swift to create a large glowing star and then lands on her tail. A variation of this was used in Borrowing on Bad Faith! when Aipom was used in an unofficial Pokémon Contest under Jessie's command, Aipom uses Double Team and forms into a circle and starts "dancing" and uses Swift and the Swift spins around the audience and then disperses into sparkles or Aipom would use Double Team and grab her tail and form into a circle and uses swift while spinning.

Description: Aipom releases a Swift that spins around Gardenia's Roserade. It was later used again in Crossing the Battle Line! (after Aipom evolved into Ambipom) where it was used against Maylene's Meditite.

Description: Aipom used a twirling Swift that spins in the air and then Pikachu would jump in the Swift with Quick Attack and as he runs, the Swift stars would be surrounding the white light from the Quick Attack.

Description: Ambipom balances herself with her hand and starts spinning her tails glow and the stars shoot out of it. Ambipom then spins on her back (break-dances), and the stars collide making spurts of rainbows.

Moves used

A † shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves.

In the TCG

While still under the ownership of Ash, his Aipom was featured in the Pokémon Trading Card Game. The following is a list of related cards.

Ash's AipomCards listed with a blue background are only legal to use in the current Expanded format.Cards listed with a silver background are legal to use in both the current Standard and Expanded formats.